Teen stabbed by brother's bullies in Potong Pasir

He had gone to a playground in Potong Pasir to meet a boy who was allegedly bullying his younger brother and threatening to beat him up.

Mr Baldwin Singh, 18, said the teenager showed up with a friend and walked towards him holding a plastic bag.

When the boy got closer, he lunged at Mr Singh with the plastic bag.

The nursing student could not react in time and the impact of the bag hitting his chest made him stumble backwards.

When he felt a wet and warm sensation on the left side of his chest and saw that he was bleeding heavily, he realised that he had been stabbed with a knife hidden in the bag, Mr Singh told The New Paper yesterday in his Potong Pasir home.

As Mr Singh dashed to a clinic about 100m from where he was attacked, the front of his blue shirt and pants was soaked in blood.

At The Family Practice clinic, a doctor tried to stem the bleeding by applying pressure on the wound using a bandage while waiting for an ambulance and the police to arrive.

The victim's father, Mr Baldave Singh, told TNP that the two boys involved in the attack followed his son to the clinic and waited outside.

The father of three sons said he was deeply disturbed by what he learnt from shopkeepers in the area.

"Some of them told me that the two boys were seen laughing outside the clinic as though nothing serious had happened," said the 53-year-old taxi driver.

When TNP went to the scene yesterday, a witness said that she had seen at least one of the boys, who was wearing a black shirt, "smiling and looking relaxed".

The employee at Homemaker Employment Servicessaid: "They sat near the flower pots outside my office. The one in school uniform looked a little worried. But not the other boy in black."

By the time Mr Baldave Singh received word of the attack, his son had been taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital in an ambulance.

"Doctors at the hospital told me the knife narrowly missed my son's heart, by 3cm. By God's grace, my son is alive today," he said.

The alleged attacker had apparently threatened to beat up his youngest son, Jeet, 13.

It is believed that Jeet and the alleged attacker are from the same secondary school in the neighbourhood.

All Mr Baldwin Singh could remember was the boy in school uniform approaching him and lunging at him with the plastic bag.

"I didn't see the knife. But I knew I had to stop the bleeding before I passed out," he said.

STARTED TWO YEARS AGO

TNP understands that Jeet and the alleged attacker were involved in an argument two years ago at a street soccer court in the estate, which ended with the boy punching Jeet.

When Mr Singh tried to intervene back then, the police were called in and warned them not to come close to each other.

Mr Singh said he received a telephone call from the alleged attacker last Friday. It was the first time in two years they had spoken.

The boy said that he was going to bully Jeet and even beat him up if Mr Singh did not agree to meet him at the playground. Mr Singh said he felt he had no choice but to meet the boy.

His father said: "The problem is that my youngest son did not inform his teachers when he was bullied because he felt he would certainly be targeted. If any student is being bullied, please speak up."

Mr Baldwin Singh, who still finds it painful to move the left side of the body, said he was not going to allow anybody to bully his younger brother.

Jeet, who had remained quiet throughout the interview, said: "At least I have somebody to rely on."

When contacted yesterday, a teacher from the secondary school said he was unable to comment on the incident due to ongoing police investigations.

The police said they received a call at 5.49pm last Friday and found that a case of "voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapon" had occurred in the estate.

Two suspects, believed to be in their mid-teens, were arrested at the scene.

Chest wounds dangerous

Stab wounds to the chest are especially hazardous because the injury is close to many vital organs, said Dr Timothy Tan.

The resident physician at Raffles Medical 24-hour Emergency Services said the heart and lungs are at greatest risk of damage if the injury is inflicted on the upper chest area.

The victim of the Potong Pasir attack was stabbed in the chest, missing his heart by just 3cm.

This is the area through which the body's main arteries run, Dr Tan said.

"If the victim had not received immediate medical attention, he could have died from heavy bleeding," he added,

A weapon like a kitchen knife piercing the chest can also break the rib bones, which in turn can puncture the lungs.

He said a victim's life can be saved if one of the lungs is punctured, and he is treated by a medical professional as soon as possible.

A stab wound directly to the heart can be fatal because of the amount of blood that passes through it.

The same goes for the spleen, another vital organ that stores a lot of blood, Dr Tan added.

Attacks to the lower chest area, between the lower breast and the navel, can potentially harm the kidney and the intestines. The bladder could also be damaged if the weapon penetrates the body at an angle.

- YVONNE PRIVITHA

Youths in stabbing incidents

October 2013

On Oct 1, culinary arts student Tan Zhi Long, then 19, was stabbed in the abdomen after a quarrel at Lot One Shoppers' Mall in Choa Chu Kang. A fellow coursemate from hospitality school Shatec was arrested in connection with the attack.

June 2013

Twenty-year-old full-time national serviceman Wilson Siau was viciously attacked with a parang outside Cathay Cineleisure Orchard. Mr Siau was treated for injuries to his head and hands in hospital. The alleged assailants fled the scene but were arrested by the police over the next two days.

December 2011

Seven teenagers attacked Raffles Institution student Anand Ravindran, then 17, on Dec 1 at a void deck in Potong Pasir. Triggered by a staring incident between Anand's friend and one of the seven teens, the conflict ended with one of the seven stabbing Anand. Six suspects were arrested and one of them was sentenced to two years' probation in April 2012.

October 2010

Darren Ng Wei Jie, 19, was brutally attacked by 12 youths at Downtown East in Pasir Ris on Oct 30.

Five members of the gang were sentenced to jail terms of between eight and 12 years in September 2012 for stabbing Darren with weapons ranging from a screwdriver to a chopper.